Moody Monday
by coldqueen
Summary: When a hostage situation erupts in the ER, Izzie, Cristina, and Burke are caught in the middle. What happens when the curtain falls, and the truth is revealed? CB
1. Magnetized

A/N: This is a Cristina/Burke story. It will focus on those two, as they are my favorite characters on the show. This is not a one-shot, but an ongoing story. If you'd like me to update fast, I suggest you review! I'm not kidding...if I get few reviews, I won't update fast, whereas more reviews less time between updates. LOL...I know...I'm baaaaaad...

This first chapter is for Britty Weasley...because yes, I do remember you! And now, you have another chapter of mine dedicated to you! Aren't you lucky? (wink, wink)...PS...you'll probably recognize who sings the title of this fic!

For anyone interested, the song of choice for this chapter, since music is so important to the show, the song will be Laura Veirs "Magnetized". I like it, and I think it fits the general mood of this chapter.

* * *

_The most important days of our lives, don't start out that way. They start small, with innocuous things, with everyday things. After all, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. At least, that's how the old joke goes. Being a surgeon, even the small things are life or death, just not your own. Frequently, doctors don't know how to handle their own mortality, so they ignore it. It's the important days of our lives, when it can't be ignored, but must be confronted._

Cristina Yang was good. She was good at everything. Except relationships. Especially relationships. It wasn't her fault, though. It was her parent's fault for not being affectionate enough. Yeah, that was her excuse, and she was sticking to it. Preston didn't understand that. Preston who, you ask? Preston Burke, M.D. and future chief of surgery for Seattle Grace Hospital. Her boss's boss's boss. Okay, so he wasn't Chief, yet, but Cristina had faith in him. It was all part of the girlfriend duty.

Another part of the girlfriend duty was getting up early on the day of said boyfriend's big evaluation and making him breakfast. Cristina couldn't cook, so she really got up early and ran out to the IHOP down the street and got him pancakes. Preston loved pancakes. Don't ask Cristina why, because breakfast to her was a gallon of coffee. Still, she did what she could.

Approximately thirty minutes after she got up, and a good twenty minutes before the alarm would go off at 5:30 to tell Preston to get up, Cristina was back and unpacking the bags. Strawberry pancakes for Preston, and bacon skillet for her. Double mocha latte for her, and just plain coffee for Preston, courtesy of Starbucks. His coffee went in the microwave to stay warm, while her's went down the hole and into the abyss that was her stomach. Cristina grinned and laughed as the euphoria that was caffeine spread through her body and ended in a vague tingly in her digits. It was then that she noticed it. The quiet of the apartment and her body. It was a feeling. A vague, general, "today is a big day" feeling. Something was going to happen.

Cristina's cell phone chose that moment to ring and scare the hell out of her. The overly irritating ring tone that George had secretly installed on it, "I Need A Hero" by some 80's icon, was too loud in the quiet kitchen and Cristina grabbed and answered it before it could wake Preston, who was a light sleeper, probably because of his years as a doctor and having to wake at the slightest disturbance.

"What?"

"We can't get Meredith out of bed." Cristina levied herself up onto the counter and sighed. Déjà vu...again. She'd thought they'd gotten over this last time it'd happened, a month ago. Suddenly, a thought occurred to Cristina. Meredith had had a "feeling" too. She'd almost died that day. She and Preston had almost died. This was not a good sign.

"So? What do you want me to do about it?"

Izzie sighed and Cristina could hear the grin over the phone. "Remember what you did last time? Came over and yelled at her and got her to get up? Could you do that?"

Cristina sighed, and a flicker of movement near the bedroom caught her attention. Preston, shirtless and rumpled from sleep, stretched and yawned, looking very much like a lion of some sort as he stood there. He caught sight of her, fully dressed and sitting on the counter speaking on the phone and smiled. She loved his smiled.

"Cristina?"

"What?"

"Well, can you?"

Cristina sighed and slumped down, watching as Preston caught sight of the food on the table and grinned, that evil grin of his. He walked silently around the table until he was standing in front of her.

"I could," Cristina answered, cocking her head as Preston leaned close and gently brushed her lips with his. For a few seconds, she leaned in; enjoying the touch...then she remembered who she was on the phone with. Cristina jerked back and pushed a laughing Preston away. "Why can't you do it? You saw me do it before. It's not that hard."

Preston sat down at the table, pulling his newspaper towards him, which Cristina had grabbed on her way back in. He opened the paper, simultaneously cutting off a bite of pancakes as he did. He really was poetry in motion. Even as Cristina half heard Izzie and George arguing through the phone, she was studying his movements. She did it everywhere they were together. He always moved so smoothly, like he'd thought about what he was going to do for an hour before he actually moved, though it couldn't be true. Sometimes, especially in surgery, she felt like an oaf, a big clumsy oaf with no coordination at all. Then, they'd get home in bed, and she'd know that together they were smoother than they were apart. With them, it was like everything was already set up, and they were just following through. It was...contenting.

Cristina sighed. "Just go up there and kick her...hard...in the butt. She'll get up."

Preston could hear some screeching come out of the other end of the phone, and saw Cristina move it a few inches away from her ear. She was grinning, a rare occurrence before six a.m. It was a welcome sight. He'd need all the amusement he could today. The interns had evaluations monthly, so they were used to the stress of such situations. Attendings had yearly evaluations, and they were a lot more serious. Such things could make or break careers and jobs. If your mortality rate was too high, or if you had too many complaints, you could be fired. On the other hand, if your record was impeccable then you could get a raise. Preston was in between those two things. He'd always had good surgical records; his mortality rate was a lot lower than most. However, this year two things affected this evaluation the bad way. One, an error in judgment on his part of a past surgery came to light, via a towel in an elderly woman's chest, and two, his relationship with an intern. Cristina. Not that he regretted the second one. No, he regretted nothing of this relationship, except the loss of their child. Now that, he regretted most of all. Of course, Preston didn't doubt for a second that they'd have the chance for another. Maybe several more. This was it for him. She was it. Now, if he could only get Cristina to admit it.

Cristina loved Burke. Yeah, she could admit it...to his sleeping face. Much like he thought he did to her. So...technically...they were sleeping in love. They were awake in lust. Eh...worked for Cristina.

"Why don't you just yell at her? She hates to be yelled at," Cristina said as she hopped off the counter. Cristina could tell that in a few moments Preston would be looking for his coffee, so in a fit of domesticity she retrieved it from the microwave for him. She set it down in front of him and moved to sit down across from him. As George and Izzie argued over who would yell at her, Preston pulled Cristina into his lap and kissed her neck. Now, she couldn't even focus on what was going on.

"Your skillet is getting cold," Preston said as he nuzzled Cristina.

"Yeah...sitting around does that to food."

"Who's on the phone?"

"Izzie and George. Meredith won't get up."

"So?"

"They don't want to make her."

"And?"

"And that's where I come in. I go over, I yell, she gets up, we all make it to work only half an hour late."

"MMMmmm...how about you and me stay here and be late anyways."

"I woke up early to make you this breakfast so you'd be well-fed for the big meeting."

Preston laughed. "You made it?"

"Okay...so I bought it. Same diff. I still got up early."

Preston turned Cristina so that she was straddling him in his chair. "I appreciate it. Let's be late."

Preston started to unbutton Cristina's blouse, and smiling she let him. Then she remembered the phone in her hand. Slapping Preston's hand where it'd begun to wriggle up under her bra, Cristina brought the cordless to her ear.

"Guys?"

"EEEEEEEEEWWWW! You're having sex with Dr. Burke while we're on the phone!" Simultaneous yells could be heard.

"Oh, shut up. I am not having sex with Burke!" Cristina said, grinning at the crestfallen look on Preston's face. "I'm getting ready to come over there so we can get Meredith up."

"Now I'm heartbroken," Preston moaned as Cristina disconnected the call and began to button up her shirt.

Cristina laughed. "Be heartbroken, but I gotta go. Your suit is still hanging by the door, and ignore the wet towels on the floor in the bathroom. I'll pick them up when I get home." Cristina grabbed her purse and keys, as well as her helmet and her ID badge off her other jacket. "Be nice, today, Dr. Burke." Cristina leaned over on the way out and pecked Preston on his cheek. She was out the door before he could do more than wave, causing off a careless, "Love you," over her shoulder.

It was only as she got on her bike that she realized what she'd done. She'd just told Dr. Preston Burke that she loved him. Oh, now that was just the biggest slip of the tongue.

* * *

The convenience store was very quiet in the pre-dawn light. The two men with the guns were just as silent, but in a different way. They were silent in a deadly way. They held mini-Uzis on the small Korean shopkeeper, silently urging him to empty the till faster. One of them was sweating, the ski mask making it difficult to function in the humid heat of a Seattle summer morning. They needed this money though. They had to have it. 

The big one's name was John Gravies. Everyone at the local pub called him Big John, with good reason. At six foot eight, he towered over most people, and the huge muscle mass he had intimidated the rest. The smaller man, much smaller at six feet tall, was his younger cousin, Brian Gravies. Brian was the sweater.

Together, they'd concocted a plan. They were going to rob a convenience store, and use the money to pay off the loan sharks that Brian owed money to. He hadn't meant to get so deep into debt. It took money to keep up with his cousin though. When the time had come to pay up, he hadn't had enough. They'd broken his knee cap. They said if he didn't have the money by tonight, they'd break the other one and a bone again each night until he paid them. Without much choice, he'd turned to the very man that caused this, his cousin.

John had had no idea what his cousin was getting into. He was smart, into stock, and had the money to afford the motorcycle life he lived. He'd never thought of how Brian was keeping up with him. Then, after being told, all he felt was rage. Even he hadn't enough money to pay off the loans Brian had taken. This little robbery was a return to his roots. A return to where he came from. Crime. Pain. It was all one and the same.

"Put the money in the bag!"

The teller was shaking, his old hands not quite making it through the stress. With a gasp, a handful of money slipped to the floor. "I so sorry! I so sorry! I get! I get!"

Big John watched as the small man bent out of sight, supposedly to pick up the money he'd dropped. It was only a last second intuition on Brian's part that saved Big John's life. Thinking he'd impress his cousin by being bad ass like him, Brian stepped in front of John, to threaten the teller a little, not seeing the Korean man jumping up with a shotgun until it was too late. The shot was so loud that for a few seconds, none of them could move. Then the teller was cocking the gun again, and Big John was desperately pulling Brian out of the store. The teller shot out a rack of chips, the front window, and Big John's truck's headlight before they could get away.

Looking at his cousin, his only family, bleeding on his front seat, Brian's eyes open in spite of the pain made the decision for him. Big John would do anything to save his cousin's life.

* * *

And that's the first chapter of this story! I hope we can all see where it's going! I hope we'll all enjoy where it's going! 


	2. Into the Fire

**This chapter is for Deepy**! Who also knows who the thoroughly delicious Damien Rice is! Brava! You have good taste...both by reading this fic...and by listening to DR. LOL...I also want to applaud my reviewers! It's nice to see that everyone was listening when I said the more you review, the faster I update! And now...onto chapter two...for anyone interested...the song of choice for this chapter is..."Into the Fire" by Thirteen Senses...some of you will recognize this as the song as it has been on GA before... I can't help it...I DLed it, and I'm listening to it as I write. It's a really good song.

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The morning went by quickly, considering that Cristina was taking every chance she could to stand on the lobby balcony and shoot glances at the conference room where Burke was being evaluated. She knew that the meeting was only supposed to last an hour, but for some reason...it seemed like longer. Burke was the last of the attendings to have his meeting, and there was a staff meeting scheduled right after, supposedly for the announcement of Dr. Webber's replacement. Though the man had claimed that he wouldn't be vacating his position, after the panic attack last month, the tumor, and the rumored marital problems, good Dr. Webber had decided to renege on that little promise. Thus, the battle for new chief had begun. It was widely anticipated that either Burke or McDreamy would be getting the position, seeing as Dr. Webber had promised it to both of them.

Personally, Cristina had a lot invested in Preston becoming chief...a hundred in the betting pool to be exact. Meredith and George had declined betting, Izzie had a twenty on Shepard, and Alex had a whopping three hundred on Webber not leaving at all. Well...money in the bank, Cristina told herself.

Even now, though she had a patient needing an MRI and another patient with head contusions, Cristina was standing on the walkway, surreptitiously not looking at the door. Beside her, Meredith and Izzie were doing the same. George and Alex would probably have been there too, had they not been in surgery with Bailey as an intracranial bleed needed draining. Cristina loved surgery, but she didn't like drainings. Reminded her too much of sausage making.

"Do you think he'll get it?" Cristina asked for the seventh time in the last ten minutes.

"No. McDreamy has it all sealed up."

"Would you stop calling him that?" Meredith replied to Izzie.

"Why?"

"Cause he's not McDreamy any more...he's Mr. Addison Shepard."

Cristina smiled and it wasn't nice. "Well...we do call her Mc Bitch."

Meredith tittered. "Yeah...well...he's her McDreamy now."

Cristina sighed. "You're not going to go all Mc-Conversation again are you? Cause even the first time you did that it wasn't very understandable." Cristina mocked. "Mc-Life, Mc-Dog...all that really does is make me want some McNuggets."

Izzie laughed, and even Meredith could chuckle a bit. Though Meredith still wasn't back to the way she was before the whole bomb thing, she was working her way through it. She'd confided to Cristina that she was seeing a therapist, to work through survivor's guilt, mother issues, and general "I hate Redheads who wear Chanel" kind of things.

The door opened, and Burke stepped through shaking Webber's hand. He seemed...normal. Not upset, not happy. Damnit. Why couldn't the man jump with joy for once?

Cristina realized that Burke and Webber were walking right towards them. It wouldn't do for three interns to just be hanging out around outside one of said intern's big meetings. She turned in slight panic to Izzie, who was steadily watching Webber and Burke. "We should go."

"Why?"

"Because we're spying?"

Izzie nodded. "Good idea. Meredith, you go that way. Cristina and me will walk right past them...all business-like."

The three girls nodded and went into opposite directions. Cristina looked ahead, not even glancing at Burke, though she sensed the instant he saw her. Izzie, who couldn't play poker, grinned broadly the entire time they were walking. In T-minus 30 seconds they would be walking past the duo in front of them. "What are you grinning about?"

"Something tells me I'm gonna make forty bucks tonight."

"Why only forty?"

"I bet twenty."

"You bet twenty against five people. That's a hundred, Iz."

"Oh."

"Remind me to never have you operate on me."

"It's not like that, I've never gambled before."

That statement was surprising enough that Cristina almost stopped walking. "You're almost 28 and you've never gambled? What's wrong with you?"

Izzie started to speak, but they were passing Burke now, and like lightning his hand whipped out and grabbed Cristina's. Unable to do more, the two girls stopped walking.

"If you'll excuse me, Dr. Webber," Burke started. "Dr. Stevens, don't you have some charts to be doing?"

"Yes, sir." Izzie looked at Cristina before walking off. Dr. Webber merely nodded his head, and in a distracted way continued after Izzie. That left Burke and Cristina along, so to speak.

Without speaking Burke slid his hand down so that he was holding her hand, instead of her arm. Again, wordlessly, he pulled her off the balcony and into the empty stairwell. Cristina could have pulled away at any time, but she was curious as to what he was doing.

"I have patients," she said pointedly, as they walked down several flights.

"As do I," Burke replied, his voice cool. _Oh, great_, was all Cristina could think, _he's mad again._

"I had a very good reason for being where I was."

"Enlighten me."

"Izzie and Meredith wanted to tell me something."

"What?"

"Girl things."

"What kind of girl things?"

"Izzie has a crush on you."

Now that made him pause. "Really?"

"No...Now why would you ask 'really'? Are you interested in her?"

"No. I'm interested in you," Burke replied as he pulled Cristina into one of the basement's unused labs. "What did you mean this morning?"

"About the breakfast? That was me meaning that I'm hungry. Might I add, I didn't get to eat. That's unfair."

"No, not the breakfast. The...comment."

"The "love" comment?" Cristina asked, well adjusted to having said it in a moment of pure insanity.

"Yes, that one."

"It means...that you have a very nice butt, may I go now?" Cristina asked, pulling away and starting for the door.

"Why were you on the balcony?"

Cristina glared at Preston from the door. "There's a wild chance that the man I'm living with could get a new position and afford to buy me many pretty glittery things to put upon my beautiful naked body...I wanted to know if he got it."

Preston laughed. "What if he doesn't know?"

Cristina gritted her teeth. "They didn't tell you?"

"They're telling everyone all at once at the staff meeting in half an hour."

Cristina walked over and stood in between Preston's legs as he sat on a spare gurney. "A half an hour? That's a long time."

Preston smiled as he recognized the look in Cristina's eyes. "It definitely is."

Cristina kissed Preston's chin. "Need some comfort? From all this tension?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

* * *

Big John had never seen so much blood and have someone still living. Brian was definitely still living. He was screaming. The screams weren't right though; it was like he was screaming through water, all gurgling and stuff. Big John didn't know what to do, for the first time in his life. He was always so sure about what to do, following his instincts and all that. His only family's life was on the line now and his instincts were conflicting, telling him to do things he wasn't entirely comfortable doing. He knew one thing though. He had to get some help, and make sure the cops didn't know about it until he and Bri were long gone.

* * *

The entire staff of the OR was crammed into one room. It reminded Cristina of the safe sex talk they'd all been forced to undergo a month and a half ago. Poor George...the nurses still called him Syph Boy. It was also a little known fact that the banana used in the demonstration had later been eaten by Syph Boy himself. Just thinking of it made Cristina want to laugh. Well...laugh and check her clothes.

She and Burke hadn't "gone all the way" but they'd gotten a little too hot and heavy for on-duty time. At the beginning of their relationship, she and Burke had gotten into the habit of getting it on at inappropriate places and times. In the little interim break up they'd had, it'd been decided that neither would engage in such activities again. It bordered on exposing them. Of course, that became a moot point when Burke told Webber about their relationship. You know, that's a good train of thought. Since everyone knew about them (yes, Alex did indeed like to call her Burky's Babe), she and Burke could quite feasibly resume their hospital visits. Never at an inappropriate time...but those on-call nights could get reaaally long in a dead OR. Purely for his benefit, of course. Couldn't have the Chief of Surgery becoming cranky.

Well...he might be Chief of surgery...but come on! Had you seen Preston Burke, M.D. in action? It's hot. He's hot. Or so say the entire female population of the intern program. This was basically Mer, Izzie, Cristina, and two other girls who'd better watch what they say lest they end up on Cristina's bad side.

Dr. Webber cleared his throat with the intention of getting the nurses, the interns, the residents, and the rest of the ramshackle bunch to quiet down...it didn't work.

"Excuse me? Can I have your attention? Do I need to get a bell or something?" The ire in Dr. Webber's voice had everyone quiet. Cristina looked at Burke, where he stood across the room from her, with the rest of the "respectable" doctors. "I have an announcement. With my retirement getting closer, I've decided to announce who will be the new chief upon my retirement early, so as to help the transition. Myself and the board have reviewed this extensively, and have decided that-..."

Suddenly one of the ER nurses burst into the room. "We have an emergency! We need a doctor! NOW!"

Webber gestured, and both Burke and Shepard hurried out. A gesture from Bailey had Izzie and Cristina following. Of course, they took their time, hoping that Webber would announce it while they were still in the room. Alas...

Once outside, Cristina could only grit her teeth. "Damnit, I wanted to know."

"Well...put it this way...at least now we won't know until all this is over. Both Burke and Shepard won't know either. You and your boyfriend can find out at the same time."

"You know what? You're being glib. I don't appreciate it. That's my area of specialties."

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Okay...so...another chapter! WHAT IS THIS BIG EMERGENCY? REVIEW! AND MAYBE...IF YOU'RE LUCKY! TOMORROW! YOU MIGHT FIND OUT! Love to all my reviewers! You're all great! I appreciated the love I get! I DO! I DO! 


	3. Strange Fruit

Once again, thanks to all my reviewers! This chappie is dedicated to HPxTWWxGAxJulia. Yeah...let's be honest...my love of DR, made you want to check out DR...and now you love DR!

Also, shout out to Francesca Jean for the great review...it was really nice...

And on a side note, I'm also working on a new one-shot based on tonight's epi "Yesterday". I can't help it...I loved the interplay in it between Burke and Cristina...even if they can't dance. I know you all want to know who's going to be chief...and I think you'll be surprised...but you're not gonna find out for a couple chapters...or...well...I actually have no idea how long this will be...seriously...no idea...

Please note, this takes place in between "As We Know It", the Superbowl two-parter epi and tonight's epi "Yesterday". The song for this chapter is "Strange Fruit". Specifically, the Nine Simone version because I think she sings it best. Yeah, yeah, I know...Billie Holliday did it first, but seriously, I like Nina better...so Billie...pshht!

* * *

Cristina and Izzie ran to catch up with the longer-legged doctors Burke and Shepard. The corridors of the third floor, the OR floor were serene compared to ER. ER was like hell...full of hot tempers, hot air, and just a lot of general pain. There was more than one reason it was called the pit.

The two girls caught up to the doctors just as they hit the stairs. Together, all four of them trooped down at full speed, sending idling nurses and lab technicians into the spaces on the side to hide.

Finally, they were on the first floor and on their way to the trauma room where the emergency wail was coming from. The first thing Cristina noticed as she ran into the room, a second behind Burke, was that a very large Caucasian man had a large briefcase in his hand. He didn't look like any businessman Cristina had ever seen.

A yell from Shepard had her attention snapping to the business at hand. She grabbed the nurse and began to question her as Izzie and Burke assessed the wound while Shepard called upstairs to get an OR. Despite the shakiness of the nurse, who was obviously intimidated just a bit by the Briefcase Man, Cristina managed to get some information.

The patient had been carried into the ER by Briefcase Man. He'd explained as he carried said patient into this room that as he'd been cleaning his gun, it'd gone off and hit his cousin. He'd immediately brought his cousin here. When asked why he hadn't called the paramedics, he'd merely glared at the young nurse, which accounted for the shakiness. Cristina finally gestured for the girl to leave and turned to give her report to Burke.

"It's an accidental gunshot wound. The patient's cousin was cleaning his weapon when the patient was shot."

Burke looked up from where he'd been studying the wound that Izzie was even now cleaning so as to get a better picture of what was happening. He turned to Briefcase Man. "What's your name?"

"John."

"Well, John, you want to tell me what kind of gun shot your cousin?"

John turned and set his briefcase on a nearby counter. Cristina and Burke watched curiously as he opened it...and pulled out a mini-Uzi. "This one."

Suddenly, Shepard took notice of the gun. "Whoa! This is a hospital! Why don't we just put that back in the briefcase...or even better, give it to me?" Shepard looked hopefully, but John's face closed down. He put it back in the briefcase and shut it. Obviously, he wasn't giving it to anyone.

Burke glanced at Izzie where she cleaned the wound and back at John. "You're quite sure it was that gun?"

Big John glowered. "Yeah."

Burke nodded and gave some unrecognized signal to Shepard. Shepard eased past Big John, and slid from the room. With the major glare John had on Burke, he didn't even notice. Cristina slid over so she was next to Izzie and across from Burke. Together, all three of them and two nurses stared at the patient, who was rapidly bleeding out from a shot to the heart.

With the chatter of the ER through the open door, Izzie felt safe enough to whisper, "That is not an Uzi shot. This is a shotgun blast."

Burke barely glanced at her. "I know that."

Cristina couldn't help adding her own two cents. "So he's lying. I saw a ski mask in that briefcase when he opened it."

Burke nodded and sent the two nurses around the room on various tasks, trying to get them out of the line of fire. "We have to assume this is gonna get hostile. Cristina, leave."

"No," came out instinctively. Cristina was not going to leave him in peril again. She'd done that once and she wasn't going to again. Besides, this promised to be an exciting surgery.

"Cristina..."

"No."

"What's going on over there? Are you gonna fix him or what?" Big John asked, not liking the furtive glances and the slow emptying of the room.

"We're gonna need to move him to an OR before we can do anything, Mr...?" Burke said, with a pleasant but deceiving smile on his face.

"Gravies. John Gravies. That there is Brian Gravies. You're gonna save his life, doc."

Burke nodded. "I'll try."

John smiled, and moved to shut the door, taking the briefcase with him. "You're gonna do it."

Burke could recognize the rising tension and was glad he'd gotten the nurses and Shepard out of the room. Shepard was phoning the police right now, but as Mr. Gravies pulled out the mini-Uzi and pointed at him, Burke wondered if they'd be on time. "What are you doing, Mr. Gravies?" Burke asked, while behind him Cristina and Izzie froze in the movements they'd been making to temporary close the wound while preparing to head upstairs.

John kept the gun pointed at the tall black doctor as he started to close the blinds on all the windows. Within seconds the feeling of isolation in Cristina had escalated as all visions of outside the room slowly faded away. Suddenly, it was just the four of them in that room. The four of them, a dying patient, a madman, and a very powerful gun. Cristina had grown up in Beverly Hills. It was close enough to Los Angeles that she'd seen what a machine gun could do to a person. A machine gun could cut a person in half, if they were lucky. That violence that plagued her home city was one of the reasons she'd become a doctor. That, and the awesome money.

"Mr. Gravies, we need to get your cousin up to surgery to save his life. Please put down the gun so that we can get through," Burke kept his voice smooth, very comforting. It wasn't working.

"You're not going anywhere. You're gonna sew him up right here so we can get out of here. Got it, doc? Or do I need to shoot up a pretty little nurse over there so that we can get on with it?"

"I'm not a nurse," Cristina blurted out before she could help herself. Thankfully, all that got her were glares from both males in the room. Beneath her hands, she felt the heartbeat of the patient start to slow. "But we do have to work here. Your cousin is bleeding out. We need to help him."

John smiled. "Then do it, but you're not going anywhere."

Burke sighed, and moved back to his patient. At the door, John sat down on a counter and watched them, his arm steady the entire time. He could hold that position for hours.

Cristina leaned close to say something to Burke but a noise from John had her looking at him. "No secrets pretty girl. What do you wanna say?"

"I was just going to say that we need a monitor. There isn't one in here and if we're going to do surgery we need one."

"Can't you do without just this once?"

"Well, I-..."

"THIS IS THE POLICE! OPEN UP!"

John jumped away from the door like it suddenly caught on fire and in a moment of panic started shooting through the small window in it. Immediately Burke pulled Cristina and Izzie down to the floor, throwing himself on top of them.

It seemed as if small explosions were going off right above them, for all the noise it was making. Even as Burke feared for his life, he feared for Cristina more. He'd wanted her to go. He'd wanted her safe. He didn't know if he could function knowing she was in immediate danger. All of a sudden he was back in that OR, that fateful day a month ago. She was holding the oxygen mask and looking at him with liquid eyes. She didn't want to go, but she was going to...for him. The tension in his stomach had eased when he'd seen that she'd left. Late at night, that vision of her eyes haunted him. Kept him up. Just as he had no idea what he'd do without her, she had no idea what she'd do without him. She hadn't said it, but in that moment he'd known. She loved him. She knew he loved her. They hadn't ever addressed the situation, preferring to stay in this ridiculous half-state relationship. They'd gotten comfortable. As Burke breathed in the heady scent of his girlfriend's hair...he wished she'd left.

Finally, it was silent. Burke risked a glance up and saw that John had basically decimated the door. There were bullet holes and scorch marks all over it, and the glass was everywhere. After the echoes of the machine gun faded, Burke thought he was deaf, then he realized that it was just reaaally silent. There was no noise anywhere except for the fading whir of the mini-Uzi. Finally, Big John turned and looked at them.

"Get up and get back to work."

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Okay, so...it's getting exciting, yes? REVIEW! LOVE ME! TELL ME YOU LOVE ME! 


	4. Insane

Once again, kudos to my reviewers and just my general fans! I'm glad everyone is liking this story, cause I'm liking writing it! LOL...I'm so glad to see we all love me as much asI love me...I love you all too!

This chapter is devoted to someone who made me laugh with their review and cause they love DR too...**GreyEyedGirl**...go ahead...stand up...take a bow! This chapter is for all of us who love DR...since it is the first chapter when I get to actually use a DR song!

And on a special note, the song for this chapter is "Insane" by Damien Rice...yes...I can't help it...it just hits the right chords for this chapter...

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The work on Brian Gravies was some of the toughest Cristina could remember doing. Because of the lack of nurses and residents, all three of them had their hands in the patient, so to speak. There was a lot of patient to have their hands in. The problem with shotgun victims is that because shotguns don't use bullets as we think of them, what you get is so much raw hamburger. Buckshot gets into the body and moves around, basically tearing up the inside of a person until the body is little more than mulch.

Thankfully for Brian, the shot was actually clean for the most part. Cristina and Izzie were pulling out buckshot, while Burke came in and cleaned up after him. The one thing they were on the lookout was the chance of buckshot getting into the bloodstream and heading to his brain, where it would kill him instantly.

It was a straight-forward surgery, despite the difficulty factor of it. What really made the entire situation so tense was the fact that Big John had a machine gun pointed at them the entire time. Well, sometimes it was pointed at them. Sometimes it was pointed at the destroyed door. You could quite clearly hear that there was movement in the hall, but so far there had been no more attempts to communicate.

Burke, for his part, was handling it well. He was calm and collected on the outside, not letting either of his two interns, and that's how he had to think of them if he was to stay calm and collected, know that he was panicky inside. He couldn't even bring himself to look at Cristina for fear that it would spur him to do both dangerous and stupid things. Of course, since he was operating on a patient in unwelcoming circumstances, maybe he shouldn't be looking away anyways.

"What are you doing?" John asked from his place in the corner opposite the door. It put him just feet away from his cousin and gave him a good view of the door.

"We're sewing up your cousin's heart."

"You're touching his heart?"

"Trying not to so much since without a monitor we can't really tell what's happening in there."

"Oh..." It appeared that the situation was finally dawning on John Gravies, because he was starting to somber up. Wasn't being as gun-happy as he had been.

He was sitting there, silent, when Izzie couldn't withhold her urge to scold any longer. Despite glares from both Burke and Cristina, which were surprisingly alike which goes to show that couples do start to act like each other, she posed the question on all their minds. "Why are you doing this?"

John looked at her, then looked away. "He's all I got."

"How'd he get shot?" Cristina asked, ignoring that Burke was now glaring at her too. "For medical purposes." She explained to the room in general, not wanting her form of curiosity to be confused with Izzie's just plain nosiness.

"We were robbing a convenience store...cause Bri got some loans he couldn't pay off. I have money, but not enough for this. I know you all look at me and see some white trash criminal, but I used to be a stockbroker on Wall Street. I grew up in the country, which meant I had an accent, and a lot of people used to think I was slow or something. I wasn't, and when I made my money I invested it. I got out while I had a nice little nest egg. Then I took to traveling. Brian, he came with me. I never thought of how he got that new bike or how he got the fancy clothes. I guess I was just wound up in me. He came to me after they beat him. Told me he needed help. He had only 18 hours to get the money. I didn't have enough time to get to my accounts and get the money. So we improvised...the clerk shot him. It was meant for me. He took it for me." Suddenly, he wasn't so amiable anymore. John raised the mini-Uzi and pointed it right at Cristina, who felt her heart stop in that moment. "You guys save him. You save him now."

Burke couldn't see that the gun was pointed at Cristina, and she was glad for it because he would surely have a heart attack. That's one draw-back of dating an older man...they die more easy. Cristina gave a minute nod and John lowered the gun, taking on a look of defeat again. Cristina breathed again. Burke barely glanced up from his work, he was concentrating so hard.

Cristina looked down and was happy to see that they were almost done. Despite not having all the equipment a surgery like this usually had, the patient was still alive and they'd removed all the buckshot that they could find. It'd have been better to get an X-ray, and really pinpoint the exact places of the buckshot, but that hadn't been an option. However, thanks to all three of them they'd gotten as much of it out as possible. It also appeared that none of it had actually hit his heart, which was very good considering that he would have died almost instantly if it had.

Even as Burke started to close up the biggest wound, an inch-long slash made by a particularly large piece of buckshot that had ingratiated itself in Brian's windpipe. Burke was a skilled surgeon, and he quickly removed the sharp metal, sewing up the cut like a pro. Burke looked over the young man's chest, already searching out the next part...but there were no more. Brian Gravies was all sewed up and still alive. He'd done it.

However, even as Burke turned to tell John the good news the patient started to violently convulse. Within seconds, blood was leaking from his fresh sutures, as well as his mouth. While Izzie and Cristina held the flailing man down, Burke tried to assess the situation. He didn't know what went wrong. The surgery had been clean, good even!

"What's happening? What's wrong with him!" John asked, hurrying to his cousin's side, leaving the gun behind on the counter.

"I don't know, back up, Mr. Gravies!" Burke shouted as he pushed John away, pulling the sheet away from Brian's lower body. "Did he have any other injuries? Was he sick? Anything?"

"Those goons...they broke his knee," John said hesitantly, gesturing with his head as he backed into the corner, his eyes fastened on his cousin pale, dirty face.

Burke used a scalpel to cut away the patient's pant leg, all the way up to the thigh. Doing so revealed the puss-filled, swollen, bleeding mess that was Brian Gravies' knee. It was quite clear that despite only having occurred recently, the injury was extremely infected. Burke shook his head, and tried to think for a minute. All his thoughts were swirling around, a miasma of indecision. Burke didn't work well in panic. He liked controlled situations. Situations he controlled. When he knew all the factors. When he could see it all...but now, he couldn't. He couldn't see anything past his dying patient, his frightened girlfriend, and the blinding awareness that he could die at any minute. He was Preston Burke. He didn't like this situation at all.

"The wound is infected. We need penicillin. Dr. Stevens, get the penicillin."

Izzie froze. "We don't have any. It's all in the medical closet. We're not allowed to keep it in the ER since last time it all got stolen from the rooms."

"Mr. Gravies?" Burke turned to John, the cool tone in his voice brooking no ignoring. "Dr. Stevens is going to leave this room to get penicillin to save your cousin's life...do you have a problem with that?"

John shook his head, and Cristina watched in amazement as Izzie ran from the room. Brian was still convulsing, but not as bad as he had. Cristina would never admit it, but when Burke was all controlled like that...it got her hot. It was very sexy. Brian stopped moving under her hands, and Cristina dragged her gaze back to him. His chest wasn't rising, and his pulse was dropping.

"Burke! We're losing him!"

Burke immediately returned to the patient's side, shouting as he did. "Get the code cart! Now, Cristina!"

Cristina jolted from that small space in her mind where she was counting Brian's heartbeat as it slowed down, and jumped for the cart. It was next to John, and she didn't even think of walking by him to get it. Just as she turned to push the cart over to Burke, an arm slammed around her neck and she was jerked off her feet. She started to struggle instinctively, but a sound from the gun had her freezing.

"Doc, you save my cousin or your pretty little friend will die, got it? Ain't no room for failure here!" John shouted, drawing Burke's attention to the new situation. Cristina locked eyes with her lover and she tried not to panic. John slowly set her down, keeping an arm around her neck so she couldn't move. The mini-Uzi, looking like an omen from hell, was pointed at her head.

"It's okay, Burke. You do what you have to do," Cristina said in a surprisingly steady voice as she reached out and sent the code cart coasting over to him. He was still looking at her when he caught it. He nodded, trying to tell her something with his eyes but whatever it was she didn't want to see.

Burke turned and gelled the paddles himself. He turned the machine on and turned to the prone body of his patient. His patient. Brian Gravies. If his cousin was holding Burke's girlfriend hostage, Burke might as well call the boy by the name. Brian.

Burke waited for the beep that meant the machine was charged, and the silence of the room despite the loud whine of the machine was deafening. Never had death been so close on them that they could feel her clammy hand in their chests. The beep of the machine startled them all, and Burke slammed the paddles onto Brian's chest. Electricity slammed through the skin and the bone and muscle, wrapping around the strong heart in his chest. No reaction. No pulse.

Burke increased the voltage, all the way up to 360. That's the highest it could go. 360. Full circle. The whine started again, louder this time. Beep. Burke once again slammed the paddles down. The body jumped this time, more from the force of the paddles hitting than life returning. Burke was about to try again, one last time, when Izzie came slamming around the corner. Her sudden entrance set off the ticking bomb that had been winding up for the past two hours of surgery. John cracked.

Suddenly, Cristina was pushed away as Big John pulled the Uzi into the two handed grip needed. Within seconds all three of the doctors knew what was going to happen. Even the people in the hall could feel the dam break. Even as the machine gun started to shoot, a hand was reaching in and pulling Izzie from harm's way. Bullets slammed into the doorframe where she'd just been, and even as Cristina thanked God that she'd moved, the bullets started to rebound. The frame was metal.

For minutes the pang of bullets hitting the window, the ceiling, the floor, and even flesh was heard. Finally, there was a clicking sound. The gun was empty. Burke stood immediately and grabbed it from John's hands. John, who was suddenly frozen much like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He just stared at Burke. Burke cold cocked John into the wall, where he slid down still staring. Cristina couldn't move.

It was all so tableau-like. Almost as if it were a scene from a movie. Bad guy almost kills everyone, but good guy wins in the end and gets the girl. Except, wasn't there always some kind of catch to those endings?

Cristina stood, and did one of the most girly things she'd ever done. She hugged her boyfriend. She'd been so scared, for herself, for Izzie, for him. She hadn't been able to think. Now, it seemed she couldn't stop thinking.

Behind them, police swam through the door. Shepard and Meredith, as well as George and Alex bullied their ways through the cops to the patient, automatically checking the patient, who was as dead as he had been before, though he now had several bullet wounds.

"Are you two alright?" Meredith asked, coming close to watch as the police handcuffed the slightly out-of-it John. He was still only staring. He'd lost.

Cristina nodded and pulled away from Burke in slight embarrassment. Embarrassment after all this? Cristina nodded, and started to wrap her arms around Burke again. Then she noticed the slick feeling that lay on her arm. Blood. Bright red blood.

She stared at Burke's ashen face. "Burke? Baby? You're bleeding. You've been shot."

He only smiled.

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Okay...so...YAY! Next chapter is the final chapter when all will be revealed! And...I'm also thinking...maybe...sequel...it all depends on how you guys take the end...eh...who am I kidding? I'm gonna do a sequel anyways. 


	5. Day Break

Okay, so...FINAL CHAPTER! This chapter is devoted to all of you, for being such great fans! Love! Happiness! A SEQUEL! Yes, I said it...I'm planning a sequel! For more information, I recommend hitting my profile, where I've posted a letter to my fans about what I'm working on now...

The song for this chapter is "Day Break" by Northstar, cause yeah...that's what I was listening to when I wrote it...

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The apartment was silent, and given the activities of the day, the couple inside wanted to keep it that way. The second they'd walked in the door, they'd dropped their coats to the floor and headed to the bedroom where they both crawled into bed and tried to sleep. It wasn't working.

Cristina was lying very still, not wanting to turn over or even move in case she bumped Burke and his still fresh bullet wound. Okay, so bullet wound was an exaggeration for the scratch on his rib cage from a ricocheting bullet, but it'd still terrified her. At a different angle, it could have hit his heart...he'd have died. So, naturally, Cristina had freaked. She'd immediately dragged Burke to another ER room and sown it up herself, before threatening to make him get a full body CAT scan just to make sure he wasn't hurt anywhere else. Common sense won out, and she'd reluctantly left him to go answer questions for the cops.

"Is something wrong?"

Cristina jumped and looked guiltily over her shoulder at Burke, who still had his eyes closed. "No...yes...no."

Burke sighed and looked at her. "What's wrong?"

"We almost died today."

"And?"

"We almost died today."

"If you're going to be a surgeon, you should know that these situations come along sometimes."

"No, they don't! They only happen at this frickin' hospital."

Burke smiled. "Well, if you're going to be a Seattle Grace Hospital surgeon, then you're going to..."

"I get the picture. This hospital is really melodramatic. Full of tensions, and relationships, and danger...sometimes I wish I'd chosen somewhere else to do my residency."

Burke pulled Cristina closer. "Then you wouldn't have met me."

"And you're just wonderful," Cristina replied sarcastically as she cuddled into his uninjured side.

"I know. I'm Preston Burke, you know."

She laughed. "Yeah, we've been through that speech several times."

"God, I'm tired," Burke moaned, stretching a bit before settling down again.

"What's on schedule tomorrow?"

"Dr. Webber said we could take tomorrow off..." Burke said as he looked down as Cristina. In unison, they shook their heads. "I've got a triple bypass, at nine, then in the afternoon I'm operating on a patient with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis."

"I love it when you talk dirty to me."

That, of course, made Preston crack up. When he finally stopped laughing, mostly because of the pain that little bullet scratch was causing him, he finally remember something that had been nagging him all day.

"Did you find out who was named incoming Chief?"

Cristina nodded, and tried to figure out a nice way to tell him in just a few seconds. "It's not you."

Burke raised an eyebrow and nodded. "I figured."

"Apparently, Dr. Webber made some funny cracks about how none of his attendings could keep their hands off the interns."

"Well, that's nice...maybe they shouldn't allow such attractive interns to run around."

"You better just be talking about me."

Burke kissed the crown of Cristina's head and smiled. "Of course. So, who is it?"

"Well, apparently, Webber and the board of directors had some big arguments, because he's not happy with who they chose."

"Who'd they choose?"

"A certain East Coast hotshot plastic surgeon. They're trying to attract some of that big money to our fair hospital."

Burke nodded his head as he tried to figure out who she was referring to. "Reynolds?"

"No."

"Lee?"

"Nope."

Suddenly, it dawned on him. "Not Sloane? Mark Sloane? Most renowned plastic surgeon on the East Coast...hell, the West Coast too?"

"The one and the same."

"I wonder why he would agree to coming here. It's a big step down for him, salary and career-wise."

"I guess we'll find out later...I just wanna get in on some of those groundbreaking operations.

Preston was used to such talk from Cristina, and sat there in peace for a few minutes as they both relaxed. It was the silence that lured them both into confessions of sorts.

"I love you, Cristina."

"I kept my apartment, Burke."

"You kept your apartment?"

"I love you too."

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FINISHED! BRAVA! YAYAYAYAYAYAY! I hope we all liked it! I, personally, loved working on it! YAY! Now, for info on the upcoming sequel and more one-shots, once again, go hit my profile...it tells you everything...like magic... 


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